Just had an email from pinkflag@greedbag advising me that my order of the "Strays" download is now available. Scratching my head I went to investigate. The last order I made through wire/greedbag was the "Nocturnal Koreans" cd. I bought Red Barked Tree with the Strays CD at the Rough Trade event in January 2011 when Wire played live to launch the album.

Checked the orders - yep - the last one is "Nocturnal Koreans". Checked the downloads - and there is "Strays" - for free!

I think Fabrizio got it right. Although, I thought also that it was spam.

The plan was, being as we ran out of physical copies of "Strays", to make a digital version available free to anyone who buys "Red Barked Tree" to maintain the offer (people were disappointed not to get it) and also make it available as a paid product to anyone missed out - i.e. didn't buy RBT from our shop.

Seems like it didn't quite go to plan!

I'm sure no Wire fan will turn their nose up at a free release they didn't have already. IMO it has the definitive versions of "Boiling Boy" & "German Shepherds"!

All four are definitive for me - in my mind however "Underwater Experiences" from "Behind The Curtain" is a completely different creature to - if you like - Version 2 - this is the definitive Version 2 cut - and it's Matt's first studio recording release with Wire. And of course - this version of "German Shepherds" has the only studio recording release of Margaret Fiedler McGuinness - complete with vocal.

No freebie for me!It is a wonderful ep though, albeit, with contrasting tracks. I love this version of Underwater Experiences, I am also very fond of He Knows. I think that this track would have been perfect for Red Barked Trees, even if it has a longer gestation. The views of HQ on the definitive versions of Boiling Boy and German Shephards is interesting. In my opinion the Peel versions of both tracks are preferable, though I still love the Strays' versions.